THE ROMANTIC OFFICE SAGA: PART 25

THE ROMANTIC OFFICE SAGA: PART 25

At 4 pm, Sally called me. I picked the call.

“Good evening honey…” Sally talked jovially immediately I picked the call, as Irene lowered the volume of her laptop which had some R & B songs playing softly in the background.

“Yes honey, how are you?” I answered.

“Today am leaving a little early, I have some visitors coming to see me. It is abrupt so I won’t be accompanying you in the evening, see you later.” Sally said.

“No problem, am also tired but I will wait until 5 pm before leaving”. I answered before she hung up her call after blowing a kiss over her mouth piece.

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I was a bit late to leave from my work place. I had assumed Irene had left only to meet her at the front office door, smiling as usual.

“I thought you had gone home, why are you still here?” I asked her.

“I thought I should wait for you we leave together.” Irene answered casually, while taking a step towards the gate.

“Tony, I needed your assistance. My home computer stopped working recently and it is heavy am unable to carry it here. Would you mind coming over to my place and look at it? I will foot for bus fare and pay you for the inconvenience.” Her request sounded professional and honest, before I spoke she continued, “it is a dell desktop computer, I had bought it 1 year ago and its warranty has expired. It is the only computer I rely for so many things and without it I feel like my life has come to a standstill, I really need it to start working.”

“I will charge you a minimum of Kshs 3,000”, I answered jokingly trying to gauge how serious she was. 

“Tony, even 10k I am willing to pay. The amount of data in that computer is worth my life. All my professional CV, cover letters, projects, personal documents, etc. worse some of my work projects are in that computer and without them I know madam boss will be so mad at me”. Irene pressed on.

“That is why I keep pressing you people on the importance of doing a backup…” She cut me mid-sentence, “Tony, that computer was like my back up for my work laptop, I did not think it can ever stop working.” Irene sounded desperate and urgent.

After considering her request, we headed to her place.

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Irene lived in a 2-bedroom house that was on 4th floor of the apartment. Her house had a big spacious table room. At the front was a huge flat screen color TV that caught my attention since it had a curvature that made it possible to view even from an 80 degrees angle, meaning that its clarity was excellent. 

Her computer too amazed me. It was indeed a dell desktop, Core I7 build multi-processor computer whose storage capacity was 2 tera byte, the biggest I have ever seen on a personal computer. Gauging by its sheer capacity and processor, the computer must have cost her not less than Kshs 300,000. I tried to imagine how could Irene afford all that yet her salary scale does not match her lifestyle. 

Irene prepared for me some green tea mixed with ginger, and served some sausages. She settled at the table room and we got talking as I took time to dismantle the computer to try and see what the problem was.

The computer was so dusty but within no time I was able to rule out that the problem was one of the computer’s hard disk; it had 4 Hard drives each 500 GB.

“Why on earth do you need all this storage space in one computer, do you work for the CIA?” I asked jokingly.

She laughed, “First resurrect the computer then we can talk about all that later.”

After figuring out that one of the hard disks, the hard disk that was holding the Operating System was faulty, I explained to Irene what I was about to do. I was to connect it to a device which will make it appear like a flash drive in my laptop so that I can figure out what the problem was.

“You IT people are geniuses, I cannot imagine how you afford to know every single part in a computer and what it does”, Irene complemented me.

“We just learn through experience and practice. ICT is the simplest thing to learn.” I knew that would be objected by her.

“No, IT is too difficult, I never could master all this.”

After connecting the drive to my laptop, I immediately realized that the hard disk was practically dead. Its revolving plates were crashing against each other you could hear the noise. Worse, it could not even register in my laptop. I guess Irene read my interpretation since she immediately said, “tell me everything is all right, that C drive is my everything…” she was breathing hard now, like someone who had just stopped from running and was taking time to relax.

I looked at her and by the look of her face, I knew telling her the hard disk was dead, was like telling her someone she loves is dead. She looked sad, her usual smile was gone and a forlorn expression registered on her face.

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“Sorry Irene, the hard disk cannot be salvaged.” I watched her for a while as she remained motionless.

“The revolving plates inside the hard disk have collided, thus the hard disk has crushed and that I am unable to revive it. You will need a new hard disk for your computer.” As soon as I finished that sentence a torrent of tears began flowing from her eyes, she leaned momentarily leaned forward and covered her face as she wept silently. It was obvious she was shaken by the news, but I really wondered what was it that could make her cry. What exactly did the hard disk contain? I wondered.

I did not know what to do, or how to react. I have never handled someone crying who am not used to, leave alone a lady. I was confused. I remained motionless and so clueless on what to do. I chose to remain silent and just watch.

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After what seemed like forever, Irene straightened herself, looked at me and muttered, “How much will a new one cost and how much will you charge me to replace it?”

“A new hard disk of this type and capacity will cost around Kshs 15,000.” I knew it would cost lesser from my dealers, but I did not want to underestimate and find the price had increased. I remained silent thinking on how much I would charge her to replace it. But before I spoke, she reached for her handbag, dished out some Kshs 1,000 brand new notes as if straight from the bank and handed them over to me. I counted them and found they were in total Kshs 22,000. 

“Irene, I don’t think it will cost this much…” I spoke but before I finished my statement she cut me short, “No, it is ok. You can have the rest as my token for appreciation for your services. Please just fix for me my computer soonest possible, I need it like never before. I have a pending assignment that I need to do with that computer.”

We then got talking about other casual things like current politics, the weather, current state of the economy concentrating at nothing in particular. I was amazed Irene seemed to know something about everything.

“Irene, it is now a little past 8 PM, I should be on my way.” I told Irene standing up to leave.

“Tony, I really appreciate your company and concern. I know I hijacked you so accept my apologies. Let me escort you to up to bus stage. Please make sure to buy that hard disk if possible tomorrow”. She said standing up to see me out.

>>To be continued>>

As narrated by Dr. Love, Kerry.